


autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place

by sentimentalscribe



Series: Solangelo Holidays [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Established Relationship, Halloween, M/M, This can either be a mortal AU or canon compliant, Very domestic, just lots of little nice scenes of them being comfortably in love that's all, they live together, they name a pumpkin randy so you know it's gotta be good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 21:42:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12591152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sentimentalscribe/pseuds/sentimentalscribe
Summary: “I swear to god, if you say ‘spoopy’ ever again in my presence, I'm packing up and moving to the Philippines.”Just lots of fluff of these dorks being in love during Halloween. Think cozy. Think wacky shenanigans. Think old married couple in the form of a young dumb couple.(I'm posting this before I go to bed on Halloween, so this counts as on time, right? Anyway, here's 2.7k of Halloween solangelo fluff! Enjoy!)





	autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place

“I swear to god, if you say ‘spoopy’ ever again in my presence, I'm packing up and moving to the Philippines.”

Nico could practically see the gears turning in Will’s head as he debated whether or not to push it any further. They stood in the middle of a grocery aisle, deciding between different bulk candy bags, and apparently Nico had died and gone to hell, because Will kept saying evil words that hadn't been popular in years.

Will asked, “What if I come up with a new, equally annoying word instead?”

“What? No. That's worse. Bad idea.”

“Spoopers,” Will suggested. “Spooki-wooki.”

Nico clutched his head. “Oh my god. Why is this conversation happening?”

“Gobbledy-bloop.”

“Literally each new one is worse than the last.”

Will bowed, seemingly proud.

Nico crossed his arms. “If this is some elaborate ruse to distract me from the candy long enough to choose the Butterfinger bag, it won't work. I know how you operate.”

Will sighed. “Dammit. That _was_ my plan.”

Nico snorted and Will shook his head sadly. Nico said, “Yeah, I’ll spend Christmas with my extended family before I let you hand _Butterfingers_ out to poor, unsuspecting children on Halloween. Jesus Christ.”

A withering glare from Will. Adorable. Will pointed to another bag and said, “Then I won't let you inflict black licorice on them, either. They need candy, not the absence of innocence in rope form.”

Nico did laugh at that. Will must have taken it to mean he was winning, because he said, “Besides, we all know most of that bag will be for me because we never get any kids down our hall.”

“And for me. Might I remind you that we live together?”

Long sigh. “Compromise? We get that bag of normal chocolates and both of us are slightly dissatisfied.”

Nico narrowed his eyes. “Fine. I concede to your terms.”

Will nodded, satisfied, and hoisted a giant bag of chocolate into their cart.

Already in the cart were two family-size bags of dinosaur chicken nuggets, four boxes of Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese, one (1) apple to cover their shared health needs, two Halloween pinwheels because they looked fun, and two each of their signature Ben & Jerry’s flavors. (Peanut Butter Cup for Will and Chocolate Therapy for Nico, for the record.) For someone so focused on medical health, Will had been wonderfully willing to adopt Nico’s ridiculous diet thus far. Nico suspected it was something to do with living away from other people for the first time, which meant there would likely be quite a conflict once Will outgrew the junk food and Nico didn't, but that was a problem for another day. For the moment, Nico just got to enjoy the simple pleasures of wandering the aisles with his boyfriend and purchasing large amounts of massively unhealthy food with him.

They moved on to other aisles and Will wordlessly picked out a jar of frosting that already came with sprinkles and tossed it in the cart. The comfort Will showed in adding to their shared total made Nico smile. He supposed a chocolate compromise every once in a while was alright if it was the price of having him around. Heaven knew Halloween wouldn't have been half as fun without this idiot.

 

-

 

“Okay, lift on three.”

“Wait, like lift _on_ three or after three?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “It's a pumpkin. It doesn't need that much thought.”

“I dunno,” Will said. “If we drop it we have to pay for it, plus I’ve already named it Randy and I would be devastated if he were to break right in front of me.”

If Nico hadn't already been in an awkward position, about the lift the pumpkin, he would have gestured outwards to the massive pumpkin patch all around them. It was set up so large groups of people could come out to the patch this time of year and everyone got the experience of picking their own. Nico was fine with just getting pumpkins from the store, but Will had insisted. “There are hundreds of pumpkins here. I think we could survive with a different one if need be.”

Will ignored him and decided, “ _O_ _n_ three. C’mon, Randy needs to meet his new sister.”

“Sister?”

They lifted it into the company truck that would drive the pumpkins to the parking lot. “Yeah,” Will said. “Melody, remember?”

“I don’t think our fish counts as his sister.”

Will shrugged. “Don’t let Randy hear you say that.”

On the hay ride back to the parking lot, they passed the time by waging a straw-throwing war with each other. Some other small children on the ride thought this was an excellent idea and soon there was a hay-ride-wide straw fight, much to the chagrin of all the parents on board. Nico felt a little immature, but he couldn’t just _not_ retaliate when Will threw straw his way. He had his dignity to uphold, you know.

 

-

 

The boys stared up at a giant wall of Halloween costumes. There was a crowd already in front of the men’s section, so they stood by the women’s while they waited.

Will pointed up at one of the sexist costumes. “I dare you to be a sexy firefighter.”

Nico snorted and pointed, too. “I dare _you_ to be a sexy nurse.”

Will found another. “Sexy cat?”

“I don’t get that one. It’s an animal. Like. It’s an _animal._ Those are some troubling implications." 

“But it’s better than the implications of Sexy Schoolgirl.”

Nico shuddered. “Why are we here again?”

“Because those assholes won’t move.” Will glared meaningfully over at the guys loitering by the men’s section. He glanced back up at the wall and said, “Well, these aren’t all bad. Women can be a normal nun OR a sexy nun. What a bounty of choices.”

Nico’s laugh was cut off sharply when he saw the literal antichrist staring at him from a placard three feet above them. “Oh god. We need to leave now.”

“What? What did you see?”

Nico pointed. “Sexy Minion.”

No words were needed. Will immediately grabbed Nico’s hand and hastily steered both of them away from the scene of the crime. Laughing all the way, they didn’t stop until they reached the opposite side of the store, near the generic costume pieces, and even then Nico peeked over their shoulders and asked, “Do you think it followed us?”

Will snorted and said, “We should be good. Be calm though - it can smell fear.”

Taking in the aisle around them, Nico said, “This section is better. Just crowns and capes and stuff.”

“Yeah,” Will agreed. “Maybe we should be vampires?”

“How about ghosts? Then we’d just have to cut holes in our sheets.”

“I know full well that that’s just a sneaky way to get rid of my sheets you don’t like.”

Nico groaned. “They’re _so old._ I feel like I’m going to rip them just by sitting down whenever we go to bed.”

“When you go out to the store and get us actual new high-quality ones, I will allow us to throw them away. Until then, no. You know I hate mattress stores.”

Nico did know that. It was the sort of little tidbit about a person that didn’t really matter, except after knowing Will so long, it did matter. It was proof that Nico had spent years around this boy, that he had stuck around long enough to know the tiny things. That was more important to Nico than he could ever articulate.

Nico pushed all that aside and said, “Fine. Then we need to stop at Target first chance to get sheets that don’t make me want to avoid sleeping with you.”

“Was that a threat?”

“Perhaps.”

Will rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the aisle. “There’s lots of face paint. How about doing zombies this year?”

“That could be fun.” Nico picked up the face paint set Will had been looking at. “Why is there so much brown in there? Zombies are like, grey.”

Will paled and pointed up at the sign at the top of the aisle. “Oh Jesus. It’s for dressing up like a Mexican person.”

Nico dropped the face paint like it had burned him. He yelped, “Can we leave?” at the same time as Will half-shouted, “Let’s leave immediately!”

They beelined for the exit faster than you could say _wi_ _ldly offensive_. There was only so much horrifying bullshit a guy could look past before he just had to dip on outta there. As they crossed the parking lot, empty handed despite their drive across town to get there, Will started giggling. Nico laughed, too, and watched in amusement as Will hid his face in his hands. Will said, “Let’s just find some couple's costume online. Dress up as the latest meme or whatever.”

Nico didn’t dignify that last suggestion with an answer. As they neared the car, Nico kissed Will on the cheek just out of habit before they split up to reach their respective seats. They settled in and Will started the car, grumbling about how _these damn keys_ would be the death of him _._ It made Nico smile. It always took Will a minute to figure out how to jiggle the ignition just right, but he figured it out and started them home. Will took Nico’s hand and they spent the good part of the drive back in comfortable silence, the crisp fall air doing the talking for them as Will’s thumb absentmindedly drew circles on Nico’s hand.

 

-

 

The soft autumn dusk approached and set the boys’ kitchen into a faint golden glow. Glasses of apple cider were scattered around the space, most of them half-empty and forgotten about before a new glass was filled and the cycle started all over again. Nico and Will were both rocking the sweatpants-and-slippers look, mostly because they were able to slide on their slippers really far across the floor.

As they carved their pumpkins, Will realized, “We still haven’t picked out costumes.”

Nico’s eyes widened. It was understood between them that skipping costumes was not an option, even if the only people to see them would be each other and the little kids in the apartment trick-or-treating tomorrow.

This required immediate attending to. Nico wiped his hands free of pumpkin goo and sat down at that same table. Pulling out his phone and looking up cheap ideas, Nico said, “We could always just cop out and be peanut butter and jelly.”

“Every couple goes as peanut butter and jelly. We’re better than that.”

“Yeah, we are,” Nico mused. “Ugh. Why are so many of these couple's costumes so sexual? Do they open the door to trick-or-treaters with those things?”

Will hummed his agreement as he scooped out pumpkin seeds from poor Randy. He said, “Even going to parties in those would be weird. Telling my friends any details about our sex life is like, the nightmare scenario. Why would someone do that on purpose?”

“Right? And a lot of these are not _quite_ inappropriate, but they’re still weird.”

“Like what?”

“Like, uh, oh -  lion and lion tamer. It’s not technically sexual, but tell me you don’t get an immediate mental image of which of them tops.” Nico showed the photo on his phone to Will.

Will shook his head. “Yeah, no thanks. Any other ideas?”

Nico scrolled for a bit, making fun of some of the stupider ideas before saying, “All of these sites are suggesting Danny and Sandy from Grease.”

“That would be kind of weird and heteronormative.”

“Yeah. I do have a leather jacket, though.”

“Di Angelo, if you think for one second that I would dress up as the Sandy to your Danny you’ve got another thing coming.”

“Coward. Okay, how about Captain America and the Winter Soldier?”

Will set down his carving tool. “Hm. Tempting.”

“Very tempting.”

“Do we have the materials we’d need?”

“Probably not. Unless you have a helmet and shield lying around somewhere.”

“Yeah, no. Lord knows you’d have enough black clothes to pull off the Winter Soldier, though.”

“We’ll keep it in mind.”

Will picked the tool back up and said, “Finish carving with me. We can figure it out later.”

“When later? We’re watching The Shining tonight.”

“Right.” Will cursed under his breath.

Nico mulled it over and looked down at one more idea on his phone. “Hey - how about Peter Pan and his shadow?”

Will thought about it. “I have lots of green clothes. You have lots of black clothes. It could work.”

Nico stood back up and circled the table to Will and his pumpkin. “Let’s do that,” he said. “One less thing to worry about.”

“Sounds good to me.” Will smiled and man, it warmed Nico’s heart.

Nico rested his head on Will’s shoulder and asked, “What are you carving?”

Will absentmindedly leaned his head into the touch. “Not sure yet. Just finishing scooping it out. You?”

“Same. Want me to put a movie on in the background while we carve?”

“Is this a trick to make me agree to Coraline?”

Already walking away, Nico said, “I was thinking more like flat-out putting it on no matter what you say.”

Will pulled a face, but agreed. “It always gives me nightmares,” he complained.

Nico decided not to go into the fact that Will loved all the scariest, most twisted slashers but couldn’t handle Coraline. Instead he opted for busting out the DVD and saying, “Good, get scared. It’s Halloween.”

 

-

 

Trick-or-treaters came just often enough for Will and Nico to have to sit by the door waiting for them. They had set their jack-o-lanterns out in the hall and were quite proud of them, which made for big egos all around whenever a trick-or-treating kid or parent complimented them. The pumpkins had faces that glared at each other with contempt, which Will said he felt embodied the Halloween spirit. Nico agreed.

They went with the “Peter Pan and his shadow” idea and the kids loved it. Some of the parents didn’t seem to be sure if the boys were just roommates or not, though none of them asked outright. And yes, Will was hilariously terrified by the ending of Coraline. Nico had to hold his hand through it and everything.

After the trick-or-treating died down, Will clapped once abruptly and asked, “Shining time?’

Nico nodded, smiling at Will’s adorable conspiratorial expression. “Shining time.”

They shut off all the lights, got the movie started on Netflix, then cozied up on their couch with every blanket they could find piled on them at once. The iconic opening shots started up and Nico smiled at the feeling of Will nuzzling into the crook of his neck, then wrapping an arm around his torso and pulling him closer. Nico turned over to face Will and let their foreheads rest together. Will leaned into it and closed his eyes, smiling and content. Nico softly took a moment to really appreciate his life as of now. There wasn’t much he could complain about. Before Will, he didn’t know if he ever could have thought something like that.

Nico was still for a moment before closing the distance to kiss Will, unhurriedly carding his fingers through those blond curls he loved so much. It was nice, Will’s chapped lips sweetly pressing back and only pulling away because Will was smiling too much. They lay there for a minute, comfortable and warm and wordlessly taking each other in, before Will whispered, “Happy Halloween, Neeks.”

Nico smiled. “Happy Halloween.”

He was tempted to stay there, to rest his forehead down on Will’s chest and fall asleep that way, but he forced himself to turn back over and start watching the movie. There could be time for that later. He pulled their pile of covers even closer around them and let Will rub circles on his arm under the blankets. Their breathing synced up every minute or so, and every time, Nico was overcome with a particular sweet emotion he couldn’t quite articulate.

Rather than wasting his time analyzing it any further, Nico smiled and decided to let his brain turn off for a while. It was time for Jack Nicholson to terrify them both into holding hands later while brushing their teeth, lest a maniac with an ax burst through their window. It was time to appreciate the faint apple spice scent that always seemed to fill their apartment this time of year, even though they didn’t own any candles. It was time to feel, in all its glory, the kind warmth of Will’s body pressed against his and the soft _phew_ of Will’s breath in his hair.

Life was a puzzle. Nico loved watching all the pieces slowly fall into place.

**Author's Note:**

> So cozy. Alright, thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, remember to kudo/comment/raise a zombie/lead a skeleton army :) Title is from All Too Well by Taylor Swift. Check out my other stuff if you want more solangelo, plus I'll have more fierrochase up soon, too. See you next time!
> 
> Also, for my novel, I'll be needing a social media following to show a publisher. So if you're enjoying this free writing, could you please follow my author twitter @sentimentalscr1 to support me in the road to publishing? It'll have updates on chapter progress, polls on what I'll write next, and info on when things will be up! I promise I don't tweet much. It won't bother you at all, but it will help me a lot. So give me a follow and help me out! Thanks so much!


End file.
